Eye Catching: Supporting tele-communicational eye-gaze in Collaborative Virtual Environments

在不断增长的全球市场的潜力和需求的推动下，并在信息和通信技术的进步下，现代工作场所的趋势之一是更多的分布式团队工作。分布式工作长期以来一直是计算机科学的一个主要课题，但尽管有出色的工作和高度复杂的计算机支持的协同工作（CSCW）系统的发展，在许多情况下，没有什么可以取代面对面的会议。由此产生的开会差旅需求对个人的生活质量和生产力产生了直接的短期影响。我们目前对长途旅行的依赖可能还有更深远和深刻的影响。因此，尝试确定某些CSCW失败的原因并研究可能的技术来扩大可以避免面对面会议的情况仍然非常重要。有许多常见的协作场景需要一种更自然的跨距离交互方式。具体来说，我们已经确定了有意识和潜意识的注意力和情感交流是共同的关键因素，使许多这样的场景很难支持没有眼睛凝视。目光是协作中的一个关键干扰资源，但在当今的通信技术中，它并没有得到很好的支持。事实上，许多人声称，缺乏能力，忠实地代表眼睛注视是目前的CSCW系统的关键失败。在今天的视频为基础的系统眼睛凝视可以保持在一些有限的方式，如果用户愿意直接看一个摄像头，但这是不必要的约束在社会的情况下，特别是在对象或环境为重点的collaboration.We建议评估的作用，眼睛凝视在远程通信，以便更好地设计未来的通信技术。要做到这一点，我们将建立世界上第一个远程协作系统，支持两个和三个方向的通信眼睛注视，而不限制参与者的注视方向。我们将把眼动追踪技术集成到沉浸式投影技术（IPT）显示器中，并开发必要的软件来构建一个一致的协作虚拟环境，每个参与者都可以看到对方，并准确地跟踪他们的目光。为了证明该系统的实用性，我们将其与在大型墙壁显示器上提供最先进的视频会议的MPEGGrid技术进行比较。虽然无法支持移动的参与者之间的交流目光，但在工作环境中的放置和表现的真实性方面，CSGrid确实提供了优势。这两种方法之间的比较将为每种方法的未来发展提供有价值的见解。通过一系列的实验，我们将建立什么样的条件是必要的和足够的，以支持在远程通信系统中的通信的眼睛凝视;验证支持的眼睛凝视在远程通信中测量其对合作的影响;测量技术方法和变量的影响;建立时，眼睛凝视是重要的;和建立的情况下，眼睛凝视是成功的合作在一定距离的关键。

Driven by the potentials and demands of an increasing global market and fed by advances in information and communication technology, one of the trends in the modern workplace is for more distributed team working. Distributed working has long been a major topic in computer science, but despite excellent work and the development of highly sophisticated computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems, in many situations there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting. The consequent demands for travel to meetings have immediate short term quality of life and productivity impacts on individuals. There may also be more far-reaching and profound implications of our current reliance on long distance travel. Thus it is still very relevant to try to determine why some CSCW fails and to research possible technologies for expanding the situations for which face to face meetings can be avoided. There are numerous common collaborative scenarios that require a more natural way of interacting across a distance. Specifically we have identified conscious and subconscious communication of attention and emotion as common critical elements that make many such scenarios hard to support without eye-gaze. Eye-gaze is a key interactional resource in collaboration but it is not well supported in today's communication technology. Indeed many have claimed that lack of ability to faithfully represent eye-gaze is the key failing of current CSCW systems. Within today's video based systems eye-gaze can be maintained in some limited way if the user is willing to look directly at a camera, but this is unnecessarily constraining in a social situation, especially during object or environment focussed collaboration.We propose to evaluate the role of eye-gaze in tele-communication so as to better design future communication technologies. To do this we will build the world's first tele-collaboration system that supports two and three way communicational eye-gaze without restricting the gaze direction of participants. We will integrate eye-tracking technologies into Immersive Projection Technology (IPT) displays, and develop the software necessary to build a consistent collaborative virtual environment where each participant can see the other and accurately track their eye-gaze. To prove the utility of this system we will compare it to AccessGrid technology which provides state-of-the-art video conferencing on large wall displays. Although unable to support communicational eye-gaze between moving participants, AccessGrid does offer advantages in terms of placement within working environments and realism of representation. Comparison between the two approaches will provide valuable insight into future development of each. Through a series of experiments we will establish what conditions are necessary and sufficient to support communicational eye-gaze in a tele-communication system; validate the support of eye-gaze in tele-communication by measuring its impact on collaboration; measure the impact of technology approaches and variables; establish when eye-gaze is important; and establish situations where eye-gaze is critical for successful collaboration at a distance.